Electric F-150 Lightning Review – What the Ford Were They Thinking?

60. 70. 80.. I mean guys. This is a a massive truck right. Still. An f 150 still weighs almost 6 500 pounds. But boy does this thing? Have the power unreal and when you launch it, it actually spins the tire Music name is adam and welcome back to driven nashville. If you happen to be new to the channel, we produce weekly enthusiast and truck content, specifically on this review were talking about the brand new ford, lightning ev in the lariat chassis im, going to tell you everything you probably want to know if youre looking to buy A ford lightning were going to do. The exterior were going to do the interior im going to demonstrate blue cruise on a point of view, drive im going to show you all the fun truck features of it right, heres, the problem guys. This is a 70 000 truck, as it sits, has about 580 horsepower and 775 foot pounds of torque. It can tow 10 000 pounds. The problem with this, though, is this is not the extended battery range edition. I would highly encourage you to get the battery of the 131 kilowatt battery, because that gives you a stated range of about 300 to 330 miles now. This has about 230 stated miles now, keep in mind, youre not going to get that, especially if youre running the ac on a hot day like today ill give you an example. I was just in electrify. America looks like you can charge it here.

However, this one on this particular truck does not appear to be using. I had to connect the cable in and out three times i initially started with this one and it did not work. Then i started with this one and it for some reason would not connect to the vehicle. So then i went back to this. One finally was able to get this connected. It would not use the reader, but you would go ahead and click into your wallet and then youd hem that and then it would scan. As you can see, this is just keeps saying: try another payment. I had to scroll down and find this exact specific charger. All right guys, as you can see here, we delivered 53 kilowatt hours. We were here for 33 minutes. We we charged ourselves with tax 11.67. I charged this thing up to 80 and it said i had just under 170 miles of rain. If you try to tow up to 10 000 pounds, youre gon na really kill your range. So just keep that in mind. If youre gon na take a lot of road trips and youre gon na drive, this thing a whole lot to your different work sites and whatnot youre gon na have to factor in charging all right lets start off real quick with the exterior. This looks like an f 150, which i actually personally like they didnt do something radically crazy, like they are going to do on the cyber truck Music.

This right here has these restyled lights. You can see theyve closed all this off. This is still open to allow some air through, but overall this is all about wind and just making sure its more slipstream. All. As you can see here, the body panels, they look really good. Uh very nice build quality, no weird panel gap issues like youre going to find on all the tussles of the world. They did give you a lightning here. They also gave you a little american flag and a lightning symbol here, and then they finished off this red bar here. All right guys lets look at the functionality of this truck, which is really important. First of all, you could open up the rear with the key two clicks there. It is fully electric it goes up and down, and then you can also open up the front front trunk, also with two clicks now. I think that is really really cool. Look at the amount of space you get with the front trunk, absolutely love it. You can also lift this up right here, which then slots right into this spot right here. You can use this for tailgating. This actually has a built in drain plug again a really really nice feature in addition to all the space plus, you get 420 volt outlets, a usbc here as well, and a usb cable guys, thats a lot of practicality and then, when youre done, you just go Ahead and close it by hitting that now coming to the back here, also a ton of good usable features in this truck.

You do have fords patented step up system again. The rivian r1t did not have this. This thing works really. Well. You also have what i think is super super cool. You have a 240 volt charger. You know this is for your really big power tools of the world and they give you another 220 volts there and another 120 volt chargers here. Awesome love that they also give you lights back here and four anchor points. Now this is a five foot. Five bed, you can go ahead and order this with a different spray in liner. This particular truck does not have it, but still the amount of technology and features they give. You is quite nice. This is actually able to be put down pretty much with one hand. I was a fan of this on my last truck that i owned, which was an f 150 roush raptor. Now, when youre done with this as well, all you got to do guys hit that twice and you can go home. Absolutely love those as truck feet. All right guys lets take a look at the interior of this car. Now, before we do that, you can see here, you do have your key code that you can program if you want to leave your keys in the vehicle now. This right here is the lariat trim package. This is not your platinum package, which would have massage seats and an even upgraded leather would also have the moon roof up here.

As you can see, this does not have the moon roof. However, with the lariat trim, you do get nice leather seats. They are two tone they are perforated which allows you to have cooled and heated seats, as you can see here, a little bit of nice wood trim. They give you, although i got ta say this doesnt have any texture to it. The buttons here all this is plastic. This is kind of that kind of plasticky material. So not a lot of frills. You do get the bno sound system, which is nice that same material here is also carried on here and here as well as you can see. As you walk into the vehicle, the vehicle does play a movie Music, all kinds of storage options. As you can see here, lots of space, you can keep some change there. You also have the ability to open this up. So if you want to put like a laptop here, do some writing: do some contract signing, etc. You get two cup holders here and two cup holders here. This is not sponsored by subway thats, just what i had for lunch today. You also get a usbc and a usb cable right there in addition to phone charging. Now with the lariat package, you do get the ability to shift right here. If you get the xlt package, youre gon na have the gear selector right here, as you guys have seen in previous trucks.

Now they do give you a 12 volt as well here, and they give you a 120 volt outlet built into the truck as well. All right, real, quick lets take a look at the back, because i know youre probably going to have some kids back here. If youre buying one of these trucks look at how much room i get plenty of room, guys, im six feet. Tough holders built in here. This also does open, which is nice, and you can see here back here – you get another 120 volt charger fantastic for the you know, gaming consoles of the world and right here you get another usbc and usb cable notice. They have this nice little polished trim. Here. You know thats nice, its probably just plastic, but still i like that they included that they also have the ability to hang your shirts and they have a grab handle here. If youre going to take it off road, all right guys were in the f 150 lightning lets go for a pov drive. Shall we so putting it in drive? Here is very similar to your gas powered f. 150. The car. Excuse me, the truck will not go anywhere until you put your foot on the accelerator where you are off road at this exact moment in time i can tell you the suspension feels very much like an f 150. Pretty gushy can definitely absorb quite a few bumps, as you can hear its quiet, you can turn on with the maki.

You also have the same ability to turn on the pulse sound. I personally dont like it. It just sounds like an engineered v8. This is how i would drive the car, which is just enjoy the serenity and the quiet factor of having an electric car. Why does it have to make a sound frankly? It doesnt ive enjoyed my teslas in silence for many years, and i know once you get used to it, you will too, in fact, youll have a hard time going back to a vehicle that has a you know. A loud exhaust note once youre used to listening to you, know, audible books and having nice conversations with your spouse in a quiet vehicle, its really hard to go back overall, first driving impressions, though it feels like an f 150 in every way. You sit up high. The steering feels very similar to the gas powered truck that i used to own. The overall suspension feels very much like an f 150. The only really difference is the performance that this thing has on tap. I mean you, you can lay into that accelerator pedal. Just a half an inch and this thing wants to move. You can just feel that it has a lot more horsepower than your standard ecoboost power, plant and uh, because it does i mean it has 775 foot pounds of torque. I mean look, i mean guys, you give it the beans, and this thing will scoot you know and its dual motor, so its always going to have im going to go this way, its always going to be really good in the rain and really good in the Snow but overall, just driving out of this park here it just feels so capable and thats just something about electric cars.

They may have somewhat crappy range and heavy batteries, but the way they drive its really hard for an internal combustion engine to compete. Even in this thing it just like when i was driving the riven and it had 900 foot pounds of torque and ran to 60 in three seconds. Well guys this isnt that far off it has 775 foot pounds of torque and runs to 60 and 4.4. So really thats, damn good. I mean just 10 years ago that was super car performance right and here we are just in a mid level. F. 150 uh! You just got ta love that, because, if you are a driver, im telling you youre gon na enjoy the driving experience that this vehicle gives. You just feels fun. You know and uh here i am driving it out of some pretty bumpy roads here, cars soaking it up its quiet. You can hear no rattling. The build quality of the interior seems to be very well done. Overall, first impressions on driving fantastic. I think you guys are really going to enjoy driving this trail ill. Tell you, though, the brakes they feel really good. Thats one area of some of the evs ive reviewed whether its hit or miss the brakes either feel amazing or they just frankly suck these brakes feel like your traditional f 150 brakes. Alright, this is actually a really good road to demonstrate blue crews on. So this is an example of not being on the highway.

You still have the capability of letting the car drive itself. You want to go ahead and hit that button right there and now its set thats, literally it its just this button right here: okay, in the end of the day, its pretty darn simple, its now self driving itself at 41 miles an hour im gon na go Ahead and decrease it a little bit to ‘ because we are rolling through bell mead here. This is one of the areas of tennessee. You just do not speed, so do two to three miles over the speed limit, and that is it okay, so you can see here its navigating the roads, just fine its self driving. It already came up with the message saying i had to jerk the steering wheel. You can see here, ive got to give it a little bit of a of a jerk now because theres, a motorcyclist or a bicyclist here im having to take over this, does not have teslas capabilities where he can detect that and then slow down and eventually navigate Around him, so were gon na have to do that. Manually theres, a car coming so were just gon na have to be patient, but overall blue cruise, while its never gon na have fsd it also doesnt cost you fourteen or fifteen thousand dollars like tesla, is now getting ready to charge for fsd, because this truck has Apple carplay built in and it is built into the truck, navigate to wyatt johnson in nashville, getting directions to ford boom that guys rocks.

So this has android, auto and apple carplay built in. I do not need to plug it into the truck, which is so nice. A lot of the evs ive reviewed recently, you know theyve uh theyve, unfortunately required a cord, but in the end of the day i got ta say driving this truck. I mean they nailed it. I mean you would have thought that ford was building in electric vehicles for years its just effortless to drive all right lets just take a a moment guys and talk a little bit about the infotainment system. So you can see here when you click this. This either takes you out of your default mode or into your settings. You can see you have normal sport off road and toe and haul for your drive modes. I do have one pedal enabled this makes the truck much more livable. It also is going to extend the longevity of your brakes if you turn that off youre, just gon na have a really good effortless cruise. Essentially, when you take your foot off of the accelerator pedal, you can see here, you have a lot of 3d cameras. This works really really well. You can also change the different settings here. This is really really helpful. I mean look at that. You even have a a trunk camera. I love that i do believe you can also get a media stick for recording as well as you can see here. There are no previous recordings, but that is very, very neat.

You can also see here you can have access. This is how youre going to set uh – i believe yep you can see here well lets see. Is that open yeah look at that there? It goes so you can open up your your truck from the inside as well. Lets just talk real, quick about the grabber hts 60 tires. These are 275 front and 275 rear. I got ta say these are nice. I, like the design, theyre metal, theyre, not cheap plastic, although if you want to take this truck off road, youre, probably gon na put some all country tires on this lets talk just a little bit about okay, you love the truck. You think its the greatest thing since sliced bread whatever and you want to order one heres, the problem, its currently september 2022 and you cant even get on the list anymore, to get a reservation for a lightning ford, has stopped taking pre orders because they had such A backlog of people who wanted one and they just cant, produce enough of it due to the supply chip shortages. Mostly, i was talking to wyatt johnson, who, let me borrow this truck big shout out to them. Thank you guys. You cant even get one right now and theyve only had two two in the last few months that have been delivered so every single truck they get and by the way, its not just the electric trucks ecoboost, which is also about 70 grand loaded up.

They cant get those either so youre. All you know, every truck that essentially is delivered to the showroom is already pre sold, whether its an f 250, an f 150 doesnt matter. Some dealers are forcing a little bit of what they call adms additional dealer markups, although wyatt johnson told me they are not. However, they really arent selling many of them, so its not a big deal. Now, if you happen to cancel your allocation or never move forward with it, this vehicle, if it was going to be sold to somebody else, would probably be uh. You know adms of at least five ten, maybe even twenty thousand dollars over, and why johnson told me that theyve had people that have come in and actually offered twenty thousand over for the demo truck, which is this one and they still wouldnt sell to them. So fords got to start getting these out into the marketplace, so they can get supply and demand back in order. If you were wondering, will my ford f150 lightning qualify me for the 7 500 ev tax credit. The answer is absolutely yes. Even with the recent inflation reduction act or the build back better plan scaled down, whatever you want to call it this ultimately because theyve sourced the parts this is well under the 80 000 limit for suvs and trucks, so youre going to be able to get the 7500 tax credit, as long as you keep the vehicle for six months, that is in the rules now.

The other thing is: if you get the platinum edition, which is 90 000 msrp, when you load it all up, you wont be able to get the 7 500 tax credit because thats considered over the threshold. So just keep that in mind, but with the inflation reduction act, a lot of vehicles that used to qualify for the ev tax credit like the pollstar 2, like the kia ev6 like the teslas back in the day, none of them qualify because of the battery sourcing Materials and where theyre actually manufactured a lot of them are the united states. However ford has you covered there, so hats off to that. The 7500 tax credit sure makes that this a lot more affordable because if you think about it, its a 70 000 truck thats, actually, 63, 000. So a little bit better before you factor in taxes and real quick guys. I want to have a little heart to heart, with you as well, would you buy what i buy? I should say a lightning over an 801a ford, f, 150 raptor, which is about 16 000 more expensive than this exact truck, although if you get the platinum edition, theyre, almost the same darn price, in fact the lightning is actually, i think, 4 000 more expensive. The honest answer is, i would get the raptor all day every day, its a better looking truck. You have the ability to tow and go a lot longer distances, yeah youre going to have to put premium gas in it and that is going to add up, especially at 4, 4 plus a gallon.

But at the end of the day, the practicality of being able to tow on a daily basis and just not having to worry about adding 45 minutes to an hour charging stops on your trips. It just really depends on you know: how are you going to use the vehicle if youre just going to take it to working back every once in a while towed the boat to the lake? You know maybe a 30 minute trip there, a 30 minute trip back. This has got everything you need and then some youre going to save money on gas and everything. But if youre, really a heavy user, you like to go off roading right, you like to tow things long distances. You like to take a lot of road trips youre going to have to stick with the gas powered trucks they just dont have the technology and the range that you really need to make it a super usable truck. Well guys, if you made it this far into the video sincerely appreciate you watching, and i hope you learned something about the truck on the point of view drive you got to see this thing launch. You can see how fast it is. I mean 580 horsepower and 775 foot pounds of torque is a lot of power. I mean even five ten years ago right that was supercar territory. Now it just comes on a mid level. F, 150, unbelievable right, its really a great truck and all the features.

You know the front trunk, the rear, theres, a reason why these are going over msrp but heres the real problem you cant get these.